On the Geomorphological Development of Pawon Cave in Western Bandung,
and the Evidences Finding of Prehistoric Dwelt Cave
Budi Brahmantyo1, Eko Yulianto2,
Sudjatmiko3
(Bandung Basin Research Group)
1
Department of Geology, Institut Teknologi Bandung
2 R&D
Center for Geotechnology, The Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Bandung
3 Member of
Indonesian Association of Geologists (IAGI)
The existence of Pawon
Cave in Rajamandala Ridge, Citatah-Padalarang, west of Bandung brings to a
curiously question whether the cave has been dwelt by ancient people. The first
significant implement findings on footpath and alluvium point bar of Cibukur
Stream in front of the cave lead directly to study the cave and its chambers. A
geomorphologic analysis concludes seven stages of cave development starting
from springs and cavern development, toppling process, cave enlargement,
collapse of cavefs roof, volcanic deposition, and the present condition. The
analysis also lead to one chamber called Kids Room as appropriate chamber for
living or sheltering. A low magnetic fields appear at the end of this chamber
and preliminary digging up to 50 cm depth at this area finds abundant
vertebrate remains, fresh water mollusks casts, stone implements, and
earthenware chips. There are indications the use of fire. The findings prove
that the cave estimably has been dwelt long enough, may be in the Neolithic
Age.
Gua Pawon (Pawon Cave) is
located in semi-karst topography of Rajamandala Ridge in Western Bandung
(between Bandung-Cianjur state road Km-21 to Km-27)(see Figure 1). This area is
not far from Batujajar Plain, which is located south of the cave. In
paleo-environmental point of view, Batujajar Plain as part of ancient lake is
considered as having important role in relation with the cave as the place of
ancient people for living around the area.
Around the ancient lake,
many stone tools have been found on volcanic foothills. Some of the best place
of stone tools findings is at Pakar area, Dago Hill, north of Bandung. Many
findings have been reported on southern volcanic foot slopes as well, such as
in Ciwidey area,
and in Cililin and Nagreg, in west and east side of
the lake (Koesoemadinata, 1956). The findings of stone tools on hills around
Bandung show that along with the development of the lake, ancient people were
already living.
Archaeologically, from
stone tools findings that most of them are made of obsidian (many in forms of
arrowhead, point and flake such as found at Dago Hills), ancient people were
judged to be living about 3000 – 6000 years B.P. (Koesoemadinata, 1956). Von
Koenigswald (1935), van Bemmelen (1949), and Bandi (1951) suggested that based
on their typology, the stone tools were products of the Neolithic Age. Although
no finds are dated, Bellwood (2000) infers the artifacts are not older than
6000 years B.P. correlated to those of Toalianfs in southwest Sulawesi.
In Leles area next to
Nagreg, in the Garut Basin, Subagus (1979) found many obsidian tools that
similar to those of Dagofs, and resumed that a stone tools industry was existed
in the area since Paleolithic to the Neolithic Ages. On the other hand, Koesoemadinata
and Hartono (1981), who referred to Rothpletzfs report in 1951, reported that
the findings in south ridge slopes of Dago-Manglayang not only stone tools, but
also earthenware and ceramic fragments from Vietnam and China, as well as
bronze tools and iron tools. That findings make Dago area, especially at place
called Pakar, was once a tool workshop of ancient Bandung people since the
Neolithic Age through the Iron Age.
The ancient lake is
estimated exceeding as high as }720 m above sea level. This elevation is the highest
contour line as closed basin, so that 720-m contour line around the rim of
Bandung Basin can be interpreted as maximum lakeshore. From this situation, it
is assumed that the stone tools must have been found along the contour line
around the basin. The sites of Dago Hills and other places such as
Soreang-Ciwidey are situated not far from this elevation.
It seemed all
archaeological surveys around Bandung area have been concentrated on volcanic
terrain around the lake. No reports have been written about stone tools
findings on non-volcanic places around the basin. Whereas in fact, in western Bandung, some limestone caves
are existed at the area of Cipatat-Citatah, Padalarang. Although the area of
cave is out of ancient lakeshore, but it is only cut off by a ridge.
Caves have been an
important part of ancient human life. The caves were used to be the places to
live, to hide, to store things or to bury the dead. Based on this thought,
small surveys around Pawon Cave resulted the finding of curiously three stone
tools made of limestone on footpath and alluvial deposits of Cibukur Stream
just in front of the cave (Figure 1)(Yulianto and Brahmantyo, 2000; 2001).
After those first significant findings, further investigation was directly
pointed to the Pawon Cave. Geological and geomorphological field analysis and
surveys, followed by magnetic survey and preliminary digging inside the cave
have been carried out. The surveys found evidences that one of the cave chambers
has been dwelt, or at least visited by prehistoric people.
Bandung Basin is located in
Central Depression of West Java (van Bemmelen, 1949). The basin is an
intramontane depression of 20 to 40 km wide, 650 m to 700 m high and exceeds
2000 m into volcanic range in north, east and south parts of the basin. Some
volcanoes are still active such as Mt. Tangkuban Prahu (+2076 m) }20 km north of Bandung and Mt. Patuha (+2766 m) }40 km south of Bandung. The basin, which now is an
Upper Citarum river basin, open to the west by incising the main river to the
Tertiary sedimentary formations. All rivers from the rim of the basin are
flowing down into the lowest part of the basin in Citarum River, south of
Bandung City, carrying volcanigenic sediments, and forming large Bandung plain.
The sequences of lacustrine
sediments that are found around the plain up to the elevation of 680 m above
mean sea level (Dam, 1994) show the existence of the lake in the past. In
eastern Bandung Plain, from boreholes data, they are found at about 100 m deep.
Former geologists (such as Klompe, in Koesoemadinata, 1956; van Bemmelen, 1936)
believed that the forming of the so-called Old Bandung Lake were caused by the
damming of old Citarum River around the small town of Padalarang by volcanic
products between 3 – 6 ka. However, Dam (1994) explained that the combination
of basin subsidence, morphological configuration of the basin area, and climate
condition, were the cause of the initial development of the lake. Four stages
of the lake had been developed before it was dried up. The lessening of the
lake was a consequence of the combination of paleo-environment and climate
changes, on going sedimentation, as well as fluvial erosion to the Tertiary
sedimentary ridge at the place near Saguling dam. Damming the river by volcanic
products was only an event in the lake history that made the lake became wider
and the lake-water level went higher. He stated the lake were first developed
about 135 ka and disappeared about 20 ka.
Structurally, Quaternary
volcanic cones mainly characterize the Bandung Basin, intruding marine Tertiary
layers. SSW-ENE orientation controls the structure of the Tertiary layers as
expressed by Rajamandala Ridge, which emerges among volcanic terrains in the area
between Bandung and Cianjur. This structural line is a complex of thrust faults
(Sujatmiko, 1972) and cuts by almost N-S lateral faults. In Cipatat-Citatah
area, the Rajamandala Ridge separated into two ridges. The main ridge, south
part of Bandung-Cianjur state road has southward dip, whereas the separated
ridge north part of the state road has relatively northward dip. Limestone of
Rajamandala Formation that overlies shale of Batuasih Formation dominantly
occupies both ridges. Many geologists explained the separated isolated ridge is
folded ridge or overturned anticline, but among others believed as blocks
product of sliding/creeping by local gravitational movement (see van Bemmelen,
1949: p. 639). From west to east, the north separated ridge consists of
consecutively limestone hills of Bancana, Masigit, Pawon (in which Pawon Cave
are existed in north side of this hill), Bengkung, Ketu-ketu and Tagog Apu.
Quaternary volcanic deposits remain covering the top of the last three hills.
Geomorphological
Development of Cave
Although the Rajamandala
Ridge consists of limestone formation, the process of karstification is not too
good. Homoclinal ridges mainly characterize the morphology, and only form
separated ridge of residual karst hills (Bancana, Masigit and Pawon Hills) in
the north side of the state road. Cave, as one of the main markers in karst
topography is not well developed. Caves in this area are formed in short
passages, or only like rock shelters at the end of the steep slope. High dip limestone layer is suspected
the cause of such circumstances. In such case, Pawon Cave is formed within this
structural condition. The high northward limestone dip in Pawon Hills end to
the eroded north slope, and bordered to the underlying shale of Batuasih Formation.
This condition makes ground water that presumed flowing down along the
northward dip of limestone bedding planes ends to the north slope of Pawon
Hills, which in the past times estimably was emerged as initial karst springs.
Within time, the processes of solution and abrasion develop springs into
caverns until appear as a cave complex as at present condition. This deduction implicates not only to
the forming of Pawon Cave but also to the adjacent Ketuk Cave, }100 m east of Pawon Cave.
At present, Pawon Cave has
been developed into several big and small chambers. According to the naming of
gpawonh that in local Sundanese (in
Javanese and Balinese too) means kitchen,
and based on architectural situation of the cave, authors gave name all cave
chambers by terms associated with such a big house (Figure 2). Particularly,
the terms are appropriated when there is possibility the cave has been dwelt by
ancient Bandung people (Yulianto and Brahmantyo, 2001). Main entrance of the
cave (} 595 m above mean sea
level) forms a narrow passage to the first high rock shelter called the
Backyard Room. The so-called Pawon Cave (the Kitchen) itself can be reached
after one climbs a high enough cliff to about 6 m height differences. The
chamber is big enough and decorated by speleothems (stalactites and
flowstones), which most of them are in damage condition due to over exploited
for natural stones collection. A hole at the ceiling indicates further
development of karstification. A smaller chamber called eDinning Roomf connects
the Pawon chamber to the big open chamber called ethe Main Hallf.
The Main Hall, which is filled by limestone blocks on
the surface, and shaped by vertical walls at all sides, suggests an interesting
geomorphologic event. Those facts lead to a deduction that the chamber was once
a very big cave. A catastrophic event in geologic time (such as big earthquake)
may cause the collapse of the cave roof. Another interesting fact inside the
Main Hall is the existence of a 40 cm thick of tuff lapilli deposits.
Horizontal layer of gray tuff and coarse grain of pumice and andesitic fragments
mark these volcanic deposits. Evaluating its texture, the volcanic deposits may
deposited from a volcanic paroxysmal explosion. The nearest volcanoes around
Pawon Cave are Mt. Tangkuban Prahu (} 25 km in the northeast), and Mt. Gede-Pangrango (}40 km in the west)
There were some notes of
paroxysmal explosion from the nearest volcano, i.e. the paleo-Sunda - Tangkuban
Prahu volcanoes (van Bemmelen, 1949), but since no absolute dating and tephra
analysis of the deposits, it is still unknown from which volcano the
pyroclastic was. One thing is sure that the tuff lapilli deposits had been
deposited after the cave roof was collapsed.
From those geomorphologic
and geologic facts that are found around and inside the cave, the history of
Pawon Cave can be traced from its initial stage up to the present condition
(Figure 3). Out of absolute age that has not been dated yet, seven stages at
least can be recognized. The first stage, as explained earlier, is the birth of
initial springs that developed into the enlargement of cavernous room due to
further solutional and erosional processes (stage 2). In stage 3, a toppling
process is estimated occurred based on the existence of vertical cliff at
northern side of the hill. At present, this process still undergoes and can be
watched at many front slopes of Rajamandala homoclinal ridges. In stage 4, the
cave is estimated went bigger and bigger, and by a certain geological event
(probably by big earthquake), the roof collapsed (stage 5). It is then followed
by deposition of pyroclastic tuff lapilli and volcanic ash inside the chamber
of collapsed cave roof (open big chamber, the Main Hall) in stage 6, and
finally ended at present condition (stage 7).
Geomagnetic
Survey and Result of Preliminary Digging
The previous first finding of stone tools was the
significant indication of the existence of the ancient human life around Pawon
Cave. That led to the idea of making survey inside the cave, whether the cave
had been dwelt by ancient people. This was encouraged by the information of
successful excavation in Malaysian cave, and moreover, by the knowledge of
astonishing discoveries at Choukoutian Cave near Beijing, caves around many
European, Mid-Eastern and African countries, or in Indonesian caves such as at
Pacitan area, East Java as well.
Despite of little response and doubtful comments from some
archaeologists concerning the first finding, investigation to the Pawon Cave
was continued, especially to evaluate the geomorphology of the cave. The result
of the analysis pointed to the Main Hall as the most appropriate potentiality
for artifacts finding. At least three chambers were considered within the Main
Hall: the biggest and the lowest eMain Roomf, the smallest eGuest Roomf and
eKids Roomf (Figure 2). Of the chambers, Kids Room was the most appropriate for
the place to live or to take shelter. The chamber was relatively big (3.5 x 7 m2 wide), flat surface, dry, and free
from bats. Based on these fair conditions, Kids Room was chosen for geomagnetic
survey to prove artifact content inside it. Such method had shown successful
result in archaeological investigation at a
cave in Malaysia (Saidin, personal communication).
The
principle of geomagnetic method is recording the total magnetic value beneath
the measuring points. In this study, the points were arranged in 3.5 x 7 m2
with 50 cm interval grid. Assuming the study area has similar characteristics
of magnetic value, the measured values were just corrected by measuring time
(linear correction). A magnetic
contour was then generated from that corrected values. The determination of the
potential area for fossil sites is because of organic material has a lower
magnetic value than limestone and its weathering products, so that the
potential areas should lay in the low magnetic contour.
The
result shows that low magnetic fields appear at deeper end of the chamber
(Figure 2). Although further modeling to evaluate the result of magnetic survey
was not conducted, preliminary digging at the area up to 50 cm deep
successfully found abundant
fragments of vertebrate
bone, toenail, teeth, and horn; mollusk casts,
monkeys jaw fragments, earthenware chips, and exotic stones (andesite boulders, jasper, chalcedony,
greenstone and obsidian chips). Almost all of big bone fragments were broken
into pieces and positively have been smashed. The finding of exotic stones
judges that they have been brought inside the cave from far, since surrounding
environments were only limestone hills, alluvium point bar of limestone and
shale fragments, and terrain of fine volcanic products. The boulders estimably
were used to smash bones to get marrow. Another interesting finding was the
possibility of the use of fire. Some vertebrate bone fragments and mollusk
casts showed indication of burning; besides there were many charcoal chips
within fine cave deposits.
The ages of artifacts have
not known yet. However, the findings of simply made stone tools, burned bones,
and imperfect burning of earthenware chips, indicate the age ranges from
Paleolithic to Neolithic. The abundant of vertebrate bones and charcoal as
well, are ways to find the absolute age of these artifacts. Considering the age
of vertebrate remains is young, the absolute dating method of 14Carbon
will be the best and effective method.
Previously, the idea of the
naming of gpawonh was based on the
shape of main cave that look like kitchenfs chimney (Yulianto and Brahmantyo,
2001), but Indonesian houses do not have such chimney. So, along with new
significant discovery of abundant vertebrate remains (some of them have
indication of burning), stone tools and earthenware chips, the authors get new
idea that the naming of gpawonh that
means gkitchenh, probably accord with
cave function in the past as really the place for preparing foods, in which
might be using fire.
Conclusion
·
Geomorphological
development of Pawon Cave are exceeding within seven stages: (1). the birth of
initial springs, (2). the development of cavernous springs, (3). the toppling
process, (4). the enlargement of caves, (5). the collapse of cave roof, (6).
the deposition of volcanic eruption products, and (7). the present condition.
The existence of volcanic deposits inside the cave is one way to estimate the
absolute dating of each stage, at least the stage of volcanic deposition
itself.
·
Low magnetic fields
that are appeared at the deeper end of Kids Room are matched with the area of
abundant findings of vertebrate remains and artifacts such as stone tools and
implements, charcoals, and imperfect burning earthenware chips. The findings
tell that the cave, undoubtedly, has been dwelt by ancient people. The
findings also confirm the first implement findings on footpath and alluvial
deposits in front of the cave as really stone tools, in which some
archaeologists felt doubt about.
·
The age of artifacts
have not known yet, but the access to find it is available with a lot of bones
and/or charcoal. The ages are considered young, so that the 14Carbon
dating will be the best method to analyze. This will be further investigation
concerning the absolute age of findings.
·
According to
geomorphological development of the cave, a question of from when (from which
stage) the ancient man has been living arises. It is interesting that the
existence of the Main Hall before its roof had been collapsed, made the cave
had a very big chamber for many people to gather. If the idea that the cave was
dwelt before this stage, another archaeological treasures will be found beneath
big blocks of limestone in the Main Hall.
This paper is dedicated by Bandung Basin Research
Group (email: [email protected]) to whom concerns with Bandung Greater
Area. The authors are very much indebted to the students of Department of
Geology, FIKTM-ITB for their helping during mapping and magnetic surveying at
Pawon Cave: Ratu Emma Desyana, Eril S. Lanin, Budi Rahim P., Mudrik R. Daryono,
M. Ari Suryoko, Omar Syarif and Setyo Wibowo. A lot of thanks are conveyed to
Dr. A.T. Rahardjo, Ir. Bandono, MSc and Dr. Johan Arif for their concerning
with the group activities and for discussion, to Mohd Mokhtar Saidin, Ph.D
(Universiti Sains Malaysia) for his invaluable information, and to Dr. Djedi S.
Widarto (Geoteknologi LIPI) for his supports to the activities. A magnetic
survey also could not conducted well without helping from Geoteknologi LIPI.
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